The War Zone by Alexander Stuart

Stepping into "The War Zone"by Merrel_Davis

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August 06, 2009: Despite the storied 20 year history of both the novel and subsequent movie, I was ignorant of its existence.

And quite a history The War Zone has; the novel was stripped of the Whitbread Prize (now the Costa book awards.) An event that Stuart himself credits as far more helpful in promotion of his book than perhaps just receiving the award itself. Script adaptations of The War Zone by Stuart number in the tens, and it seemed a successful film adaptation would remain in "development hell" for all eternity.

The War Zone is a dark, unwavering narrative filled with elegant prose. A book oft touted as about incest and abuse, was to me, a deep and layered texture about middle-class suburban despondence. The true disconnectedness and alienation that is male adolescence (I've been there!) is compounded by a world spiraling out of control. As a reader, the comfort of familiarity is ripped away as an impending sense of dread and uneasiness builds. To be inside the head of a young boy, Tom, surprisingly evoked more pity than sympathy. All of Tom's innocence, his childhood, become forever stained by the knowledge of his father's sexual abuse of his sister Jessica. As I read, my mind stiffened. I braced for impending impact, almost certain of its trajectory. And suddenly, what I knew, was not what I knew. Tom's fear and his inability to change the outcome of even his own life paralyzes the reader.

The bleak and muted English countryside enraptured me. Even though I've never been to the United Kingdom, Stuart conjures a middle class moroseness that I'm all too familiar with here in the States. I enjoyed the subtle, stifled elements of the world. There is a realness and depth that is unnerving.

In literature and film, victims of sexual abuse are too often painted as helpless and subdued, call it the "lifetime movie effect." Here, Jessica presents as a strong character, and even appears to instigate sexual encounters with her father. While it is clear Jessica is the victim of sexual abuse, The War Zone paints in shades of grey. In an unflinchingly real look at sexual abuse, the reader is left with a conflicted view of the `relationship' - Does Jessica truly believe she is having sex with her father of her own volition? Or is she so emotionally damaged that her only way to cope with this terrible abuse is to somehow to claim it as her own?

As I read, I was reminded of my first read of Anthony Burgess` A Clockwork Orange. A book in which the most utterly taboo things were explored in an equally unflinching light. As a younger reader I was shocked and delighted at the shifts and turns it offered. Like The War Zone; Clockwork haunted me long after I set it down.

For me, this was a deeply personal book. Some may ask "how could you enjoy something with such a horrid subject matter?" I'm not sure I have an exact answer to that. There is nothing 'feel good' about it. And yet, I found it captivating and meaningful. The War Zone has found a permanent place on my bookshelf.